Bridge builder



R. C. BAKER BRIDGE BUILDER Filed Feb. 2O

June 10 1924.

F ATroR EYs Patented June 10, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

REUBEN C. BAKER, OCE' COALINGA, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNO-R T0 BAKER CASINGSHOE COMPANY, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

BRIDGE BUILDER.

Application filed February 20, 1922. Serial No. 538,129.

To all whom t may concern.

Be it known that I, REUBEN C. BAKER, a citizen of the United States,residingy at Coalinga, county of Fresno, and State of California, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Bridge Builders, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to a bridge builder for a well shaft or casing.

It often becomes necessary in the course of drilling wells, and at timesduring the performance of the well, that it is desirable to obstruct thewell at a certain depth. It has been the common practice to fill thewell from the bottom up to the desired oint with any material at hand,such as rick,"old rope, tree boughs, rocks, etc., and thus close thewell. It is the particular object of the present invention to provide adevice which may be easily placed within a well shaft or casing andaccurately located and fastened within the well shaft or casing at thedesired point.

The present invention contemplates the use of sets of fastenin jawswhich are opposed to each other andF may be lowered into the well'uponspiders, after which they may be set to engage the well casing at anypredetermined point and will thereafter support the spiders to carry aquantity of cementitious material and form a well bridge and plug.

The invention is illustrated by way of eX- ample in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in vertical section and elevation showing the presentinvention as being .lowered into a well and more clearly disclosing thenormal-positionsof the upper and lower clamping dogs.

Fig. 2 is a view in section and elevation showing the bridge member asset and as supporting a casing plug.r

Fig. 3 is a view in horizontal section through the casing as seen on theline 3-3 of Figure 1, illustrating the arrangement. of the upperclamping dogs.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view in section and elevation showing the normalposition of the upper clamping dogs and the spider they support.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, 10 indlcates a well casing.This casing may be of any length and may be plugged at any pointthroughout its lengt by bridging member 11, with which the presentinvention is particularly concerned. This bridge builder is formed witha central supporting rod 12 havin an eye 13 at its upper vend to which acab e or other suspending member may be secured. The lower end of therod is externally threaded and engages a lock-cap 14. Thls cap has alower cup portion 15 into which locking fingers 16 of lower locking dogs17 normally seat. These fingers extend radially from the locking dogsand hold these dogs in a disengaged position, under normal conditions.The lower locking dogs are formed with outturned sharpened Jaws 18adapted to engage the inner faces of the well casing and to act tosupport the bridge structure. The locking dogs are mounted upon pivots19 carried y by a lower spider 20. This spider is substantially circularin shape as more clearly shown in Fig. 3 and is formed with four radialslots through which the dogs may swing. The upper ends of the dogs areformed with upwardly eXtendin and inturned lugs 20 which rest beneat andare partially engaged by a pressure collar 21. The pressure collar 21 isnormally and constantly forced down by means of an expansion spring 22.This spring circumscribes a spacing sleeve 23 through which the rod 12is free to slide. The lower end of this sleeve is externally threadedand passes through a bore in the center of thc spider 20. The collar 21is free to slide upon thc spacing sleeve 23 and agrees in constructionand operation with an upper collar 24 resting upon the upper end of thespring 22 and disposed around the sleeve. The upper col! lar 24 isadapted to bear upwardly against lugs 25 of upper locking dogs 26. Thesedogs extend upwardly and are intended to swing outwardlyto cause theirgripping faces 27 to forcibly engage and lock against the sides of thecasing in opposition to the locking action of the faces 18. The upperdogs are carried upon pivot pins 28 which are supported from an upperspider 29. This spider is formed with a central threaded bore into whichthe upper end of lthe spacing sleeve 23 is adapted to seat. It will thusbe seen that the spacing sleeve 23 and the lupper and lower spiders 28and 20 form a spool-like structure upon which the two sets of dogs aremounted and from which they may pivot. r

casing and as it is lowered, will forcibly enfgagef the sides of thewell casing by the V- shaped jaws 27 of the upper locking jaws 26. Asthe bridge builder gradually moves down into the casing, it may be setat any positionl desired and when in position the rod 12 may be drawnupwardly. This upward action will cause the jaws 27 to be forced intothe sides of the casing and prevent upward movement of the bridgebuilder, as a whole, at the same time the shaft 12 will be lifted andwill elevate the cup member 14. This will draw the cup from an engagingposition with the locking lugs 16 and will permit the lower jaws 17 tospring outwardly as forced by the action of the expansion spring 22,this will cause the V-shaped faces 18 of the lower jaws to be forcedinto the sides of the casing and hold the bridge member against anylowering action. It 'will thus be seen that the bridge builder will thenbe locked against upward or downward movement, at which ltime thesuspending member may be releasedand concrete or other cementitiousmaterial poured into the casing. The two spiders 2O and 28 will, ofcourse, obstruct the downward flow of this material and will assist informing a satisfactory bridge or obstruction for the casing.

It will thus be seen that the device here disclosed, while simple andeconomical in its construction, provides means by which it may be easilylowered into a well and posivtioned at any desired point or depth andthereafter set.

While I have shown the preferred form of my invention as now known tome, I wish it understood that various changes may be made in theconstruction and combination of parts by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit of my invention as disclosed in theappended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

l. A gas well obstructing bridge mechanism including a central stem, asleeve through which the stem is slidable, said sleeve having spiderslixed at its opposite ends, radially swinging arms fulcrumed to thespiders, and forming upper and lower sets of arms, said arms havingtheir outer ends adapted to engage the sides of the well casing, camlugs on the inner ends of each set of arms, an upper and a lower collarslidably mounted on the sleeve, a spring surrounding the sleeve betweenthe collars and exerting a pressure thereon, said spring and uppercollar normally projecting the upper set of arms into engagement withthe well casing, means for securing the lower set of arms againstengaging the well casing when the device is lowered into the casing, andmeans for releasing said means when the desired point is reached.

' 2. A well casing bridge including a sleeve having spiders secured toopposite ends, radial arms pivoted to the spiders, and having theirouter ends adapted to engage and lock with the casing, lugs on the innerends of the arms, and collars on the sleeve engaging the lugs, a springbetween the collars, acting to force the collars apart and diverge thearms, a shaft extending through the sleeve, a flanged locking cap fixedto the lower end of the shaft, locking lugs on the lower set ofexpansible locking arms, said lugs engaging the flange of the cap, toretain the arms out of locking contact with the easing. and means formoving the cap out of engagement with the locking lugs to release thesame.

3. In a bridge builder for a well shaft or casing, comprising incombination a pair of plates disposed one above the other and supportingmeans therebetween, a plurality of spider arms extending from each ofsaid plates and pivotally secured thereto, means by which the spiderarms of the upper plate may be swung outwardly and locked with relationto the well shaft or casing against upward movement, means for securingthe lower spider arms against engagement with the well casing when thedevice 1s being lowered into the well, means for releasing said armswhen a predetermined point in the well is reached, and other means forforcing said lower spider arms outwardly into locking engagement withthe casing.

4. A device of the character described, a pair of interspaced plates, atube connecting the same, a plurality of spider arms ivotally mounted onthe uppermost o said plates, a plurality of spider arms pivotallymounted on the lowermost of said plates, means for retaining thelowermost spider arms in a position where they will be held out ofengagement with relation to the well easing when the device is beinlowered into the well, a common means or projecting both the upper andlower set of spider arms outwardly into engagement with the well casing,said means maintaining the upper set of spider arms in constantengagement with the well easing when the device is being lowered, andmeans for releasing the lower` most set of spider arms when apredetermined point is reached so that the common actuating means mayproject the lower set of spider arms into engagement with the wellcasing.

, REUBEN C. BAKER.

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